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Inthis week’s issue of PARADE,Ben Affleck talks to Dotson Rader about his new movie, his loving family and what pushed him tochange his life. Below, the actor talks more about his childhood and the highs and lows ofcelebrity.

On Growing Up

“I grew up in a home environment where I wasn’t getting esteem for anything I did,” he says. “ I played sports, but I wasn’t great at them, so it wasn’t like I was super-athletic and getting ahuge amount of praise for that. There was alcoholism at home because of my father. I changedschools [at 8 years old], and I didn’t really know the kids at the new school. I felt alone.”

On Becoming an Actor

“I got into acting as a young child on account of a sort of arbitrary thing,” he explains. “Afriend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of actingjobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followedthrough with it. Then, basically, came the next stage—should I continue to act or not?”On Matt Damon

Ben Affleck says that, had he not met Matt Damon, he probably would not have had a career asan actor. The two met when Ben was 8 and Matt was 10. They lived two blocks apart, shared a love ofbaseball and acting, and both attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

“Matt gave acting a framework, an integration into the social hierarchy at school,” hestates. “As a teenager, the natural thing is to have friends who have common interests and so youfit together seamlessly. Before Matt, I was by myself. Acting was a solo activity where I’d just gooff and do something, act in a little TV show or something, and no one understood it. None of theother kids knew what it was I did, how it worked, or anything. All of a sudden I had this friend,Matt, and he gets it and wants to do it and thinks it’s interesting and wants to talk about it.Soon both of us are doing it.”

“When we were teenagers, like Matt was 16 and I was 14, we’d go together down to New YorkCity [to audition for jobs],” Ben continues. “We’d take the train. Or sometimes we’d even take theairplane, back when there was the Eastern Shuttle or People’s Express. It cost like $20 to flyand you could smoke on the plane. We were smoking like idiots because we thought we were reallysupposed to be grown-up. It was pitiful.”

On the Worst Months of His Life

In 1988, Matt Damon graduated high school and went on to Harvard University. Two years later,Ben graduated and enrolled at the University of Vermont. Emotionally, the two friends remained veryclose.

“I went to the University of Vermont because I had a kind of unrequited love for this highschool girlfriend. She wasn’t even at the University but at another school nearby. But I thought ifI went to a school near her, just maybe…I was really remedial about girls in so many ways.Interestingly, there are some parallels for things to come in my life.”

“Two weeks after I got there, I called her room,” he continues, “and some guy answered thephone! ‘Who is this guy?’ ‘He’s helping me study,’ she says. Sure.”

Inthis week’s issue of PARADE,Ben Affleck talks to Dotson Rader about his new movie, his loving family and what pushed him tochange his life. Below, the actor talks more about his childhood and the highs and lows ofcelebrity.

On Growing Up

“I grew up in a home environment where I wasn’t getting esteem for anything I did,” he says. “ I played sports, but I wasn’t great at them, so it wasn’t like I was super-athletic and getting ahuge amount of praise for that. There was alcoholism at home because of my father. I changedschools [at 8 years old], and I didn’t really know the kids at the new school. I felt alone.”

On Becoming an Actor

“I got into acting as a young child on account of a sort of arbitrary thing,” he explains. “Afriend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of actingjobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followedthrough with it. Then, basically, came the next stage—should I continue to act or not?”On Matt Damon

Ben Affleck says that, had he not met Matt Damon, he probably would not have had a career asan actor. The two met when Ben was 8 and Matt was 10. They lived two blocks apart, shared a love ofbaseball and acting, and both attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

“Matt gave acting a framework, an integration into the social hierarchy at school,” hestates. “As a teenager, the natural thing is to have friends who have common interests and so youfit together seamlessly. Before Matt, I was by myself. Acting was a solo activity where I’d just gooff and do something, act in a little TV show or something, and no one understood it. None of theother kids knew what it was I did, how it worked, or anything. All of a sudden I had this friend,Matt, and he gets it and wants to do it and thinks it’s interesting and wants to talk about it.Soon both of us are doing it.”

“When we were teenagers, like Matt was 16 and I was 14, we’d go together down to New YorkCity [to audition for jobs],” Ben continues. “We’d take the train. Or sometimes we’d even take theairplane, back when there was the Eastern Shuttle or People’s Express. It cost like $20 to flyand you could smoke on the plane. We were smoking like idiots because we thought we were reallysupposed to be grown-up. It was pitiful.”

On the Worst Months of His Life

In 1988, Matt Damon graduated high school and went on to Harvard University. Two years later,Ben graduated and enrolled at the University of Vermont. Emotionally, the two friends remained veryclose.

“I went to the University of Vermont because I had a kind of unrequited love for this highschool girlfriend. She wasn’t even at the University but at another school nearby. But I thought ifI went to a school near her, just maybe…I was really remedial about girls in so many ways.Interestingly, there are some parallels for things to come in my life.”

“Two weeks after I got there, I called her room,” he continues, “and some guy answered thephone! ‘Who is this guy?’ ‘He’s helping me study,’ she says. Sure.”